The Veterinary Practice (Amendment) Bill received strong support in the Dáil last night (Thursday, June 25) as Deputy Jackie Cahill brought it through the second stage of the process.
The bill, which would prohibit the ownership of veterinary practices by lay persons, will now go before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine for pre-legislative scrutiny in September, after the summer recess.
However, Deputy Cahill, who is also chair of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine told Agriland that there is an urgency to this particular bill and he will ensure that it is dealt with promptly.
The crux of this Veterinary Practice (Amendment) Bill relates to veterinary practice ownership, and a ‘loophole’ in the current legislation that has allowed for corporate ownership of a number of veterinary practices in Ireland to take place.
Corporate ownership, in this context, refers to the ownership of a practice by ‘lay-persons’, rather than by a registered veterinary practitioner.
The background to this takes us back to 2017, when the Veterinary Council of Ireland (VCI) made “changes to its code of professional conduct regarding the ownership of veterinary practices” Deputy Cahill said in the Dáil.
These changes made it possible for a number of veterinary practices to be bought by corporate entities in the period since.
“I deemed it necessary to bring forward this amendment to reinforce the original legislation, which was not specific on the ownership of veterinary practices and, without which, regulation of veterinary antibiotic and antiparasitic use, and other activities such as TB testing, animal welfare, etc., cannot be regulated,” he added.
There are two main issues, Deputy Cahill said. Regulation is one, and the he outlined the consequences of a lack of regulation in the Dáil.
“Lay ownership of practices has clearly been shown in other countries to reduce greatly the availability of 24-hour services.
“We have seen that in Derry, where a corporate took over a practice, and in the lack of services in neighbouring Donegal.
“It also has been shown to be cost prohibitive and, as a direct result, will have a major impact on animal welfare as animal owners will not be able to afford the cost of what will be charged by corporates for a 24-hour service,” he said.
Deputy Cahill told Agriland that he was aware of a scenario recently where a vet had left a corporate-owned practice, and had not been replaced for up to six weeks.
“This resulted in a quantity of medicines there with nobody qualified in the practice,” he said.
The second issue, said Deputy Cahill, is to do with attracting young people to the profession and offering them sound career progression.
“The future generations of veterinary practitioners will have limited opportunities.
“At present, large-animal practices are having great difficulty attracting newly graduated veterinary practitioners, and if the opportunity to purchase practices is denied to these young practitioners, this will become even harder.
“Newly graduated veterinary practitioners would see entering-large animal practice as an unviable financial option [under corporate ownership].
“Without the opportunity to purchase and buy into practices, current and future generations of graduates will choose a different career path. In the long term it will result in a lack of professional motivation and, therefore, a fall in professional performance.”
Speaking in the Dáil, Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Pippa Hackett said that under the current Veterinary Practice Act, on the matter of ownership, the VCI clarified that in its code of professional conduct, “the legislation does not speak to the ownership of practices and, thus, the council has no legal authority in determining the ownership of practices”.
“In essence, the parameters of the VCI’s powers as established under the Veterinary Practice Act 2005 do not extend to the area of ownership of practices.”
But, she added that any veterinary practitioners hoping to provide services at/from specific premises, a registered person must have a certificate of suitability (COS) issued for that premises by the VCI.
And a COS may only be held by a registered vet or a registered nurse.
“It cannot be issued in respect of a corporate body or in the name of any person who is not a registered person,” said Minister Hackett.
She said that ownership of veterinary practices was the subject of a recommendation from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) in 2008, which is still outstanding.
“This bill may benefit from scrutiny on Committee Stage to determine whether its provisions are consistent with the CCPC recommendation.
“The provisions of this bill seek to restrict ownership of veterinary practices to ‘eligible veterinary practitioners’ only.
“It is unclear what impact this would have on existing practices, which are not owned by veterinary practitioners and this aspect will need to be considered further.”
But Deputy Cahill said that while a number of practices have been bought by lay persons and corporate interests, the number still is not huge.
“We can’t do nothing just because a few practices have already been bought, this is the right thing to do for animal health,” he said.